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simonkd

Original Poster:

1,386 posts

260 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
Hi All

During my Annual service yesterday TVR Power noticed that 2 of my dampers were leaking fluid, 1 front and 1 back. As this is both dangerous and an MOT failure I had no choice but to replace them with aftermarket items, Nitrons in my case. Only done 35 miles on Nitrons but God what a difference, even having only reached speeds of 70mph.

The question is: Is it worth bringing this to TVRs attention. The car has only covered 10K miles and has been serviced 4 times by reputable TVR people (Racing Green x2, David Gerald and TVR Power.It's never seen a track or been abused in any way.

Do I have a claim with TVR? Has anyone else tried such a claim and succeeded?

Many Thanks

Simon.

Extra 300 Driver

5,282 posts

275 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
How old is the car?

Extra 300 Driver

5,282 posts

275 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
If you were thinking of claim under some sort of warranty you would have to prove that the fault was due to a design or material failure, as warranties are not failure based.

To build a good case you would need to prove that this is not an isolated case and that there had been sufficient negligence, on TVRs part, to justify a warranty pay out.

I know its OT but I don’t understand why people didn’t push the speed 6 failures further. If I got a car and the engine blew after 4 years and low miles I would be knocking on the door of TVR. So many of these engine were repaired under warranty, so they are confirming that the part was not up to standard, and that it was lacking the design and material composition to be fit for the job or purpose.

Sorry I digress!

the gazman

1,686 posts

249 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
It's laughable isn't it, only 10k and new shocks.
Main dealers shrug it off as par for the course because they know they are wasting their time trying to fight for you over this problem.

The problem lies with this trend of running cars on the dampers with soft springs.TVR are not alone in this, MX-5's are comming up with the same problem (same shock manufacturer).

Instead of finding a suitable spring rate for the car and then putting a shock on it with a damping range that controls the spring properly they put all the load on the shock and after a while the shock starts leaking.

As i've said before, I exclude the Saggy from this because they actually did it the right way round on this car.

Just as an aside, I have a guy running a Cerb on 400lb springs rear and 500lb front as a road/track car and its not uncomfortable on B roads, thats about a 50% increase in spring rate from the original fitment.

trackcar

6,453 posts

255 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
I agree with Derek that you can run very stiff springs with decent dampers .. for instance I have 650 (yes 650!) pound per inch front springs on my V8S with the excellent Nitron dampers and it's my everyday car and I do about 15000 miles a year ...

however 10k miles for a cheap damper isn't bad, i've had some aftermarket dampers (i won't tell you which type) and out of three sets two cars had failures within maybe 2000 miles (certainly an unreasonably short time span) , so it's not just the TVR fitments that fail early. Needless to say i still refuse to sell that make of damper!

Julian64

14,325 posts

283 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
While I agree with the posts on the TVR reliability hole, I also find myself sometimes siding with the manufacturer.

How much do we really know about this car? Imagine for one moment its a garage queen. Its done 10K miles and 5 years old and the 10k miles were done in the first year. So its been sitting doing nothing for four years.

Piston shafts are rusty, oil seals in the pistons have had no use and the shaft have been starved of oil for four years in a damp environment. I would expect that to be a problem, and the first time the car is used the oil rings go leaving a leaking shock.

Now most probably this isn't the case, and the lack of use argument doesn't apply, but do we know that before we start?

Gazzab

21,634 posts

311 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
what happened to Redlines?

simonkd

Original Poster:

1,386 posts

260 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
The car was 3 years old yesterday.

Regards
Simon.

Extra 300 Driver

5,282 posts

275 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
simonkd said:
The car was 3 years old yesterday.

Regards
Simon.


Whats the warranty on Cerb's? A year isnt it?

simonkd

Original Poster:

1,386 posts

260 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
I really don't know.

simonkd

Original Poster:

1,386 posts

260 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
It's done 5K miles during it's first 2 years & 5K miles during the last 12 Months whilst I've owned it.

Regards
Simon.

Gazzab

21,634 posts

311 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
sh1t happens. why would u want to refit tvrs cerb suspension anyway!!! they have given you the excuse u needed!

trackcar

6,453 posts

255 months

Thursday 2nd March 2006
quotequote all
Gazzab said:
what happened to Redlines?


I've just tried mailing you through your profile but it says you don't accept emails (maybe just from me? lol) .. pm me with an addy to reply to okies? cheers